


(Color)Blind

by TerinAngel



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Multi, minor blood and injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-21 00:56:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14905446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerinAngel/pseuds/TerinAngel
Summary: The world is black and white, and that’s the way Cor wants it to stay.ORYou don't see color until you meet your soulmate. Cor doesn't see in color. Therefor, he must not have met his soulmate yet....Right?





	(Color)Blind

The world is black and white, and that’s the way Cor wants it to stay.

Once, when they were young, Regis had tried to explain colors to him, had used every ounce of his royal eloquence to try and instill in Cor the kind of awe and wonder and brilliance of a world you had known all your life gaining new meaning. Cor had nodded along and agreed dutifully, still young and awkward, and unsure of his place at the young Prince’s side. But his Prince had wanted him to understand, so Cor tried. He listened as Regis spoke of the hidden brilliance of the world around them, watched as his Prince’s face lit up with joy and light, and he tried, oh he tried to imagine what Regis was seeing in the world that made the Prince so happy.

In the end, Regis had sighed and frowned, and Cor had felt his stomach sink as his Prince left, convinced he had disappointed him, but not sure how to make it right.

Clarus had tried a more practical route. It’s thanks to Clarus that Cor knows the Royal color is, in fact, black, and that his own eyes are blue, like the sky. It’s Clarus who teaches him the difference between the grey of the green leaves of spring and summer, and the grey of orange in the fall. It’s Clarus who teaches him that the color of his hair is brown, and the color of his blood is red.

Eventually, Clarus stops telling him what color things are, with that hopeful look on his face that falls to heartbreak every time Cor fails to understand, and Cor wishes that his friends would tell him what they’re looking for, so that Cor can know how it is he’s failing.

Weskham eventually tells him the reason he can’t see colors. The colors only appeared when you met your soulmate, your other half, the person the Astrals made to complete you. He told Cor the story of Shiva and Ifrit, ice and fire, who only found balance and joy when they found each other. He tells Cor that his soulmate doesn’t have to be like Regis and Clarus. They could be a friend, or a lover, whatever made Cor happy. As long as they made Cor happy, made him complete, Wesk had said, his friends would be happy for him.

Cor lets Weskham leave without telling him that he doesn’t feel incomplete, and somehow that feels like the biggest failure yet.

It’s Cid that finally comes close to figuring it out. It’s Cid who eventually drags Cor out on a hunt, just the two of them, because they’re low on gil, and there are enough hunts in the area to justify them splitting into two parties. It’s Cid who keeps them out so late, they end up staying at a Haven instead of heading back into town, who doesn’t look away from his food as he asks Cor if he’s afraid of having a soulmate, and it’s Cid who understands when Cor says nothing in response.

Cid tells him a story, not about the day he met his wife like Cor was expecting, but of the day a drunk driver killed his Father. He told Cor how he knew something had happened, because his Mother had collapsed like a puppet with it’s strings cut, gasping and pleading, and staring at nothing, and how he found out later that he’d watched her lose the colors that came with a soulmate. He tells Cor how his Mother didn’t last six months without his Father, and how when Cid had met the woman who became his wife after he buried them both, he’d run away without a word, because as beautiful as the colors were, he couldn’t stand the idea of being the reason someone else lost them.

Cor is quiet, and Cid tells him it’s alright to be scared. To not want a soulmate. To be content with the world being black and white. That all his friends want for him is for Cor to be happy, and if he finds that without ever seeing color, then more power to him.

They return to town the next day, and Cor continues on with his life, no longer dreading the day the world won’t be black and white.

* * *

The world is black and white, and Cor is content for it to stay that way. 

He’s watched Regis and Clarus get married while he ascended the ranks of the Crownsguard. Watched them have children as he fought, and bled, and killed in his King’s name. He’s stood strong beside them as they lost their wives, and focused on their children and each other.

There are people who try to say they’re his soulmate. He may be a commoner, but he’s Marshal of the Crownsguard now, a prestigious position in and of itself, even without his friendship with the King. It’s enough for people to try, to sidle close, and say they see color now that they’ve seen him, and when that doesn’t work, the rumors start.

Colorblind, they call him – a soul without a match.

The accusation that he’s Colorblind bothers Regis and Clarus more than it bothers Cor. The world is black and white, and if the Astrals are kind, that’s how it will stay for him, but the thought of him never meeting his soulmate – or Six forbid, him not having one in the first place – is apparently unthinkable to his friends. Cor just shrugs the rumors off. If he’s Colorblind, then he’s Colorblind. It wasn’t as if there was anything he could do about it. Soulmates were the domain of the Astrals, and Cor was not so foolish as to think anything he had to say on the matter would change their minds now.

Years end up passing. The rumors come and go, ebbing away only to surge back to full strength in the wake of Cor refusing another hopeful suitor. Clarus and Regis raise their children, run a country, and do their best to protect Cor from the worst of the Courts interest. And Cor serves loyally, fighting and bleeding and killing for his King as he always has.

The world is black and white, and Cor doesn’t mind, even if others do.

* * *

The world is black and white, and Cor isn’t sure when things changed. 

Clarus and Regis are his friends. Have always been his friends, even when he was an awkward fifteen year old with too much to prove. To them, he has always been their equal. They have always seen him as worthy to stand at their sides, even when Cor himself did not. They drew him into their circle without hesitation, and while Cor may at times have questioned it, he has always been grateful for their friendship.

He doesn’t know when he began to think of it as something more.

Maybe it was when the rumors that he’s Colorblind start up again. The Crownsguard had always been a safe haven for him, when the Court began buzzing about his supposed deficiency, but this time it wasn’t some Noble seeking favor with the King who had tried their luck at him. It had been one of his own men, a commoner like him. Whether they were looking to sleep their way up the ladder, or they were actually that enamored with him, it hardly mattered, because no sooner had Cor rejected their advances than the whispers of Colorblindness began to make their rounds. Normally, it wouldn’t have bothered him. But this was his safe haven, his men talking, who’s respect he had earned, talking behind his back and –

He doesn’t know why he told Clarus. Maybe it was the alcohol his friend had given him when he’d shown up looking worn and defeated. Maybe it was stress. Maybe it was because something inside of Cor knew he wasn’t Colorblind, and he desperately wanted to believe that Clarus knew too.

The next day he goes in, none of the Crownsguard will meet his eye, and the word Colorblind is never spoken by his men again.

Maybe it was when he’d spent a night in Regis’ room, the two of them dressed down and passing a bottle of something alcoholic between them like they used to when they were younger. They went through the old photo albums Regis kept, laughing and telling stories of the old days, and that memorable car trip that, with the help of alcohol, seemed like it ended only yesterday. Regis had said – Cor didn’t even remember what, but he remembered getting offended, in a good natured way, and pushing at Regis’ shoulder, only for Regis to grab his arm and fall back, bringing Cor down with him.

He remembers suddenly being face to face with his King, and wishing he knew what color Regis’ eyes were.

The world is black and white, and Cor is afraid that he’s starting to wish it wasn’t.

* * *

The world is black and white.

Until it isn’t.

He hadn’t had time to think. All he had seen was a man moving towards Clarus and Regis, pulling something out of the coat he never should have been wearing because of the heat, and he was moving. There’s no room to pull out his sword in the crowd, so he lunges, struggles, feels something hard against his side –

Feels his leg give out before he feels the pain of the gunshot wound.

He struggles back up as much as he can to see Dustin has the man on the ground. He sees Clarus pushing Regis back, sees them both look in his direction, and suddenly the world is too bright, and he flinches, brings his hand up to shield his eyes, only his hand is covered in blood and…

The blood is red.

Oh.

The blood is _red._

His world spins, and he looks up again, only Regis and Clarus are gone, as they should be, and for the first time in his life, Cor is seeing a sea of color.

The world is no longer black and white, and Cor wonders how he could have ever lived without color.


End file.
